


SLiCE

by RoryChaze



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Falling In Love, Fluff, Friendship/Love, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Training Camp, feelings of incompetence, not enough, small acts of romance, there's just a lot of blushing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 00:37:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11817558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoryChaze/pseuds/RoryChaze
Summary: Tsukishima starts falling for the last people he wants to, or needs to, at training camp.





	SLiCE

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished my final (why so late??) for today, so only the first chapter is going up for posterity's sake because I'm literally about to fall over. Also, is anyone else having loading issues with AO3? [Delete Later]
> 
> The awesome banner was made by Selenic here on AO3!! Please go check out the rest of the AMAZING digital manips done for this fic!! They are wonderful and incredible! There is a link at the bottom of the chapter!! 
> 
> This starts out with Day 1 and moves on from there during the Training Camp arc in Haikyuu, so a lot of the dialogue was used to keep it canonical; but I liked the idea of having Tsukki as a main character instead of Kuroo or Bokuto. I feel like the tall crow gets shafted a lot when they're around. Plus, this is probably my favorite arc in the entire series, so I had to make a homage!

“Hey, Glasses-kun!”

That hit Tsukishima the wrong way. He turned and glared at the source.

Two third years from different teams were standing there with their hands on their hips.

Tsushima cocked his head in curiosity, knowing who the two were: Tetsurou Kuroo, captain of Nekoma High School Volleyball Club. And Kotarou Bokuto, captain of Fukurodani Academy Volleyball Club. But why were they calling out to him? His eyebrow rose as he pointed at himself.

“Yeah, Karasuno’s middle blocker!” Kuroo was smiling and waving him over. “You want to run some blocks?”

Tsukishima looked down and rolled his eyes, _I’m not the_ only _middle blocker on the team._ “I’m sorry, but I’m tired from all of the practice games, so I’m just going to have dinner and go to bed.”

“AWWW!” Bokuto’s voice was exceptionally grating, and Tsukishima couldn’t begin to imagine what hanging around the loud mouth was even like. “There’s no point in practicing spikes without having someone block!”

Tsukishima griped, “Why does it have to be me? Why can’t it be someone else from Fukurodani?”

Another Fukurodani member peeked from behind Kuroo, but Tsukishima couldn’t recall his name, “Bokuto-san’s spikes are harsh and everywhere, so most just end up learning to run away from block practice.”

“I’m currently trying to whip Lev into shape,” Kuroo gestured to somewhere behind him in the gym. “Plus, you’d be practicing with one of the top five aces in the country,” he smiled.   

The other Fukurodani player crossed his arms and shook his head, “Why couldn’t you be in the top three?”

Bokuto turned to Kuroo furiously, “Why set me up just to get me knocked down?!”

But Kuroo was laughing and looking at Tsukishima again, “C’mon, don’t you need the practice?”

A slice. _Oh, goddammit._ All that Tsukishima looked was pissed. _Of course I need the practice, I’m nowhere near where Hinata is._ He was about to walk away, but he saw all three of them looking at him with such curiosity that his feet started working on their own. _Dammit, why? This is just a club._ He walked passed the three upperclassmen into the gym, but missed Bokuto giving Kuroo a thumbs up.

“Hey hey hey! Akaashi, warm me up!” Bokuto jogged away from the gym entrance, and Tsukishima caught a better look at who must be Akaashi. _Oh yeah, the setter._ But he could feel his cheeks get warm as Akaashi kept looking at him.

“I’m Tsukishima Kei, and I guess I’ll try to block.” Kei gave a bob of a bow and pushed his glasses up.

Akaashi shifted the ball in his hands and bowed as well, “Akaashi Keiji, setter for Bokuto-san.”

Kuroo threw his arm around Tsukishima’s shoulders, “You’ll be running them by yourself with these two for now while I work with Lev.” He jerked his thumb over to the lanky first year that was sitting down and panting on the court.

Tsukishima wiggled out of Kuroo’s arm and got into the position to block, looking back over his shoulder at where Kuroo was gently kicking Lev to get up.

Bokuto tossed the ball up for Akaashi, who readied to set for Bokuto.

_I’m one blocker, so he’ll try to go for a straight._

Bokuto jumped as Akaashi tossed the ball right to where Bokuto wanted.

WHA-PAM!

“Tsk.” Tsukishima was almost positive that he wasn’t going to actually block Bokuto’s first spike, but his arm brought the ball down so fast that Tsukishima was still trying to figure out if he had hit a straight or a cross.

“WOO! Another!” Bokuto shouted right in Tsukishima’s ears.

WHA-PAM!

“Again!”

WHA-PAM!

“One more!”

WHA-PAM!

Tsukishima grimaced and tried to catch Bokuto’s next straight, he could all of a sudden read where the spike was going and shifted to block perfectly.

But Bokuto’s strength was ten times over Tsukishima’s, and he whacked the ball directly into Tsukishima’s arms causing it to blast out of bounds.

Tsukishima bent over in both defeat and exhaustion. _Damn. Thought I had that one._

“Woo! That was awesome!”

“Yes,” Akaashi threaded his voice with sarcasm, “You just beat all of one blocker.”

“How about two blockers then?” Kuroo sauntered over with a smirk on his face.

Tsukishima looked over with a touch of awe. He had heard Kuroo working hard with Lev over good form, but the guy looked like he had barely broken a sweat!

He managed to glance behind him and saw Lev face-down sprawled out on the court. _Is he dead?_

Kuroo lined up next to Tsukishima and murmured, “Hey, four eyes, make sure you keep that straight in check.”

Tsukishima made sure to follow instructions precisely as he jumped, keeping his arms as close to the foul line as possible. He could see Bokuto put his sights on a gap that Kuroo had left in his defensives and grimaced at the thought of letting the enthusiastic captain get another point.

But Kuroo’s arms suddenly shifted just as Bokuto’s hand got to the ball.

The double impact cut through Tsukishima’s mind and Bokuto’s wild grin.

“Yaaaaaaay,” Kuroo let out sarcastically.

“GAH!” Bokuto crumpled up and pointed dramatically at his rival captain, “I hate you!”

“You’ll have to figure out how to hit past decoy holes, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi said while fetching another ball.

Bokuto scrunched up his face, “I don’t want to figure out how to hit past decoy holes in a block, I just want to hit past this idiot cat!”

Kuroo stood on the other side of the net snickering. “See what I mean, Glasses-kun?”

“It’s Tsukishima.” But Tsukishima had only retorted to get himself out of the state of awe he was in.

“You have to get stronger.” Kuroo patted his arm, “Stronger in the arms, stronger in the hands, and stronger in the fingers.”

Bokuto stood up—apparently over his brief defeat—with hands on his hips, “It’s true! You make some real good reads, but you’re a real wuss when it comes to blocking I feel like I’m about to snap off your arms every time I hit a spike! You gotta have guts!”  

Tsukishima bothered to look down at his hand and flexed them a bit before smirking and letting out, “Well, I am young enough that I’m still growing. I’m just starting to put on more muscle and height!”

Bokuto looked extremely fed up about being shorter than Tsukishima.

“Are you sure you want to be thinking like that?” Kuroo side-eyed Tsukishima, “Won’t Shorty just come and grab all the glory from you with that kind of talk? You both play the same position after all.”

Tsukishima paused. Of course that would happen. It _was_ happening. He wasn’t stupid, Hinata had loads more natural talent than he did, and he was just the blocker who was good at reading. Nothing else. He couldn’t spike hard, couldn’t block properly, and wasn’t quick at all. Of course Hinata would get all the glory, he deserved it more than Tsukishima did anyway.

He turned towards the other three with a huge fake smile, hand behind his head for added relaxed effect, “Oh there’s not much I can do about that! I’m way far behind Hinata talent-wise; he’s just levels ahead of me!”

Tsukishima could see Kuroo’s face break into curiosity, like he wanted to say something. But he was suddenly interrupted by one of his teammates walking into the gym. Obviously looking for their captain.

“OH! You guys are still practicing? Can I block some spikes?” Inuoka was buzzing with excitement, not unlike Hinata would have been at the opportunity.

Tsukishima watched the rest of the Nekoma team walk in, Yaku kicking Lev back to life. He looked back over at Kuroo, whose eyebrows were furrowed. _What, he’s mad?_ Tsukishima shook off the thought. “Well, you’re team is here, so looks like you don’t need me for blocking,” he said curtly, “I’ll just call it a night. See you.” He gave off one more fake smile, grabbed his outdoor shoes, and walked out of the gym, pretending he didn’t hear Kuroo’s call of “Wait!”

He was fuming, what gave that nosy cat the right to call him out like that. It was just volleyball, nothing special. Who cares if someone else was better than him? There would always be players much better than him.

He stopped, realizing that there wasn’t an extra weight in his hand or tightness around his knees. _Dammit. Forgot my knee pads._

He turned on his heel and marched back to the gym where the rest of his team was practicing. Everybody was running drills, even Yamaguchi. He hadn’t seen his best friend put this much effort into volleyball ever.

 _And for what?_ He stood in the doorway. _So stupid. It’s just a club._ Tsukishima’s lip curled as he watched for a few more seconds. _Why go to the extra effort when you’ll still be hurt down the road?_

He turned quickly and headed towards the baths, still not fulfilled with his explanation.

* * *

 

Adding the note about [Selenic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11765748) down here too! Please go check out those amazing manips because they are everything! 


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